Why Integrated Bundling Makes Sense for IoT

Sue Holub, Chief Marketing Officer

04/11/2017

Whether an “extra value meal” at your favorite drive-through, or a package of phone, Internet and cable from your local provider, integrated products and services give organizations the opportunity to differentiate themselves in the market and offer customers value and convenience. The products work together to provide a solution, reduce complexity of choice and usually offer substantial, overall cost-of-ownership savings.

So, what would integrated bundling look like in the IoT space? These turnkey solutions would allow organizations deploying IoT strategies to increase productivity by procuring a combination of connectivity, equipment, applications and supporting services. The end result: improved workflow, efficiency and communication.

End-to-end IoT Solution Must-Haves

For bundled IoT solutions to work, they will have to incorporate the following:

Flexibility: Every IoT application is unique from company to company and from industry to industry. For example, customers must be able to choose the carrier, rate plan, and hardware device that will allow their organization to address their own unique business requirements.

Simplification of supply chain: Bundling options must bring together highly complex technologies and services, from SIM cards, to equipment, to professional IT and monetization services.

Ease of implementation and reduced time-to-market: Organizations looking to get to market quickly are requiring IoT partners to kit, test and provision their specific solutions, allowing for immediate, plug-and-play activation.

Turnkey IoT Solution Use Cases

Companies that are purchasing connectivity solutions for their IoT applications may already be purchasing off-the-shelf tablets, routers, or gateways to enable their solutions direct from the manufacturer or through another third party reseller. Bundling these components will give businesses a consolidated vendor ecosystem, allowing them to procure both connectivity and equipment from a single source.

At a more granular level, let’s take a look at specific examples of how integrated bundling can help organizations streamline IoT efforts:

Wireless failover with out-of-band management (OOBM): Cellular-enabled routers or gateways bundled with 4G LTE connectivity convert cellular data to Ethernet in the event of a primary Internet or landline failure, ensuring a seamless failover to 4G LTE. With an optional configuration, OOBM provides 24/7 remote access to critical network components to allow for remote management of network infrastructure. This is specifically attractive for companies in industries such as Healthcare or Retail that are especially reliant on cloud-based data to run their operations.

Wireless with Tablet: Tablets delivered with 4G LTE connectivity and pre-installed software solutions provide mobile or remote workers with a reliable, secure, and convenient way to serve clients, share information and access cloud-based data. In markets like Fleet Tracking and Remote Monitoring, bundled services can provide a helpful solution to ensure companies meet Electronic Logging Devices (ELD) compliance, with the ability to fold in device management and software security add-ins, making logistics simple for users.

IoT partners should move towards end-to-end bundled solutions to better serve the growing IoT requirements in almost every industry. By doing so, they will set the stage for enterprises to solve their overall business needs without researching and procuring a series of individual point solutions. It is for this reason KORE Power Solutions have been introduced to simplify the complex and empower businesses to avoid the common pitfalls associated with IoT implementations. These comprehensive offerings combine KORE’s strong foundation of reliable, secure, and scalable IoT connectivity with equipment, applications, and professional services to provide businesses with end-to-end, fully managed IoT solutions.